Ces Butner, President of Rotary Club of Oakland
Call to Order – Ces Butner
President Ces Butner called our 5,322nd “Civic Thursday” meeting order at 12:30 p.m. and welcomed all of our Zoom guests.
Lou Rigali
Thought for the Day – Lou Rigali
Lou Rigali gave us the thought of the day. He shared a quote by Mary Parker Follett, an early 20th century management consultant, philosopher and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and behavior. “We find the true man only through group organization. The potentialities of the individual remain potentialities until they are released by group life.”
President's Update - Thermometer
President's Update
President Ces announced that 92% of our members have donated to The Rotary Foundation campaign. He is thrilled to have led in changing the culture of our club. We are only a few members short of reaching our goal. The leadership team will reach out to the remaining members to secure their participation. Ultimately, our donations come back to the Club to use in making Global Grants.
Family Dog Walkers - Winter Williams
Meeting Sponsor – Winter Williams, Family Dog Walkers
Winter Williams, a true Renaissance woman, introduced us to her business, Family Dog Walkers. When she joined Rotary two and a half years ago, she was a business banker and music promoter. At the time, dog walking and boarding was a side interest. She spoke of how important pets are in our lives. We need levity and furry faces in our lives especially now as we shelter in place. She also reminded us that dogs, as well as humans, can get stressed during the pandemic. With her love of music, she has put together a playlist, nearly 2 hours in length. Winter can be reached at www.familydogwalkers.com
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Past President Ed Jellen introduced Visiting Rotarians Dianne Dorn, San Leandro Club Past President; Oakland Rotary Past Presidents Dale Chamblin and Iris Brody Lopez; Kathryn Marshall from San Francisco Evening Rotary Club, and Martha Goralka from Rotary Club of the Delta. Members brought numerous guests.
Jesse Bowdle
New Member Induction – Jesse Bowdle
President Elect Dudley Thompson introduced our newest Rotarian, Executive Administrator Jesse Bowdle. Jesse has been a member of the San Leandro Club for the past four years. Two interesting facts about Jesse: He is a certified barbeque judge of the Kansas City Barbeque Society; and he rode in the first AIDS Ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Women in Rotary
Past President Jack McAboy talked about the history of women joining Rotary. After a ten-year legal battle between the Duarte (CA) Rotary Club, which had admitted women to active membership and Rotary International which had revoked the club charter. The California State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Duarte Club. The case wound up in the United States Supreme Court, which mandated Rotary International must allow women to be active members. Now 30 years later, there are 280,000 plus women in clubs around the world representing 23% of total membership. In our club, 33% of our members are women and we will have had nine female presidents when President-Elect-Elect Mary Geong takes office in July 2022.
Five of our long-time members shared their stories:
Gail Uilkema joined in 1987 having been named Superintendent of the Piedmont Public Schools. She has had the opportunity travel internationally with Rotarians to Ghana, Vietnam, Guatemala and other countries. She appreciates the tremendous friendship at weekly meetings and through committee work. A recent pre-COVID activity she enjoyed was distributing food at Laney College.
Carla Betts joined in 1980 and became the Club’s first female president in 1997. She was already familiar with Rotary because her husband, Ken was a member starting in 1970. She acknowledged she has 30 years of friends as a result of joining Rotary.
Shannon Hackley was in her mid-20s when she joined the Club in 1988. She was a young entrepreneur and acknowledged how fellow Rotarians provided her guidance as she grew her business. She recalls going on the Reno Train Trips, an activity for many years of Bay Area Rotary Clubs. Historically most participants were men, and she recalls not being made to feel welcome. She also commented about travelling in Central America on Rotary trips. When meetings took place, she was relegated to spending her time with the wives of local Rotarians.
Iris Brody Lopez joined the club in 1990. She was one of the first HOPE mentors. She served the club as its 99th President in 2007. During that year, the Oakland Reads program, which provides three books to every third grader in the Oakland Schools, was started.
Mary Rudser join the Club in 1990 and was Club President in 2009. She saluted fellow Rotarians, characterizing “giants among us who saw things in us that we might not have seen in ourselves”.
Mayor Libby Schaaf
Speaker for the Day – Mayor Libby Schaaf
Kymberly Miller introduced our speaker Oakland Mayor and Honorary Rotarian Libby Schaaf.
Mayor Schaaf gave us a State of the City address. Starting in 2020, the city saw major businesses establishing their home in Oakland. Among them were Blue Shield of California and PG&E. Oakland had just added 16,000 new housing units in only five years.
Her first knowledge of the COVID-19 situation was a call on March 5, 2020 from Governor Gavin Newsom telling her about the Grand Princess cruise ship circling in San Francisco Bay with an outbreak of this new virus aboard.
The three themes for 2020 became Tested, Sheltered and Connecting.
Tested – the city provided COVID testing initially to first responders, then free to the community in East Oakland.
Sheltered – with the help of Governor Newsom who got FEMA to allow sheltering in vacant hotel for the most vulnerable individuals, 2,000 plus people were off the streets and housed in four hotels plus a FEMA trailer park.
Connecting – Through Project HomeKey, Oakland will add 800 permanent housing units. The City has purchased a dormitory in the Rockridge neighborhood from California College for the Arts to house 100+ residents.
Shared housing is being pursued with Bay Area Community Services to provide 17 single family homes for 100+ individuals.
They are keeping connected through the great Oakland Check-In to provide meal deliveries, personal protective equipment and other needed supplies.
The Oakland Public Education Fund has raised $13 million to help the 25,000 school children who have not had computers or internet connectivity with equipment and tech support.
The City of Oakland has established an online permitting process to speed up projects.
For 2021, Mayor Schaaf’s theme took a quote from Ben Franklin about being Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. She also added Safe and Solvent. In conclusion she noted none of us can be healthy as long as homelessness is in the streets.
Bellringers
Executive Administrator Jesse Bowdle announced the following bellringers:
Joe Goralka rang the bell for Martha Ely Goralka.
Karen Friedman, Beth Hillman, David Stein and Ces Butner rang the bell for Women in Rotary.
Bruce Nye, Beth Hillman, Maya Woods-Cadiz and Ces Butner rang the bell for Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Adjournment
President Ces Butner adjourned another busy meeting at 1:30 p.m. with his signature comment “that’s the way it went” and the reminder that Rotary Opens Opportunity for Service Above Self as he rang the bell.
Dave Metz
Next Meeting, January 14 – David Metz – Local Opinion Poll Results
David Stein announced our speaker will be David Metz, President of FM3 Research. He will provide an overview of the latest opinion research to tell us what Oaklanders think about their community and local government; what the results of the 2020 election mean for politics and governing in Oakland and in California; and whether we can all trust what polls tell us anyway.
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